Happy birthdayzzzz to Lex, Pebbles, and starry_eyed! Always funny to see multiple balloons on the Friends list.
I said before I'd describe the new artwork up at the Arlington Arts Center. I think I should wait to take photos of the paintings. I can describe the main exhibit, though, since 1) it's a visceral experience, 2) you can't capture it at all on camera.
I said ages ago that the new exhibits seemed to revolve around geography; well, only 3 are. I believed this because of the pics in the main hall, these odd... ground cutaway pics done in colored pencil by Cynthia Harper, and a schematic of ocean currents done in pinpricks/indentations on paper by Renee van der Stelt.
The main exhibit is called MORI: An internet-based Earthwork. What it is is a room, an almost completely dark room with speakers semi-blasting. The only light are these floor tube-lights leading you in a circle to the center, where speakers are putting out a hum at... well... I thought I'd read that 110 decibels was painful noise, and 90 was like being under an aircraft taking off? I'd say the hum inside the room was a good 80 decibels. (In fact, the room smells like wood, and I don't think it's the frame construction; I think it's that smell speakers give off when they're playing really loud, that blasting-woody-speaker smell... for all of you that've owned a stereo.) So you have this blasting hum, then in the center you look into the floor, and there's a screen giving oscillosopic seismograph data of the Hayward Fault Line in California.
The flyer says the sounds "echo the unpredictable fluctuations of the earth's movement," but when I was there (around 15 minutes within earshot) I never heard the sound fluctuate. Regarding the title, the flyer says, "The title links the Japanese term for 'forest-sanctuary' with the latin 'reminder of mortality.' In Mori, the immediacy of the telematic embrace between earth and visitor questions the authenticity of mediated experience in the context of chance, human fragility, and geological endurance."
Well, it is an interesting sensory room, anyway. I suggest anyone in the area go in there. I have to say, being there at a slow time, it was at once cool and pretty scary to go in the room alone. I felt like something would jump out at me, and (more practically) with the noise level you'd have no way of knowing if someone was coming around the corner until you practically tripped over them (it's not pitch-dark, but it is a small space).
(fwiw, one of the MORI creators, Randall Packer, discusses the artwork at 7 on Thursday night. The other listed creators are Ken Goldberg, Gregory Kuhn, and Wojciech Matusik.)
Okay, goin' to Portland tomorrow mornin'
I said before I'd describe the new artwork up at the Arlington Arts Center. I think I should wait to take photos of the paintings. I can describe the main exhibit, though, since 1) it's a visceral experience, 2) you can't capture it at all on camera.
I said ages ago that the new exhibits seemed to revolve around geography; well, only 3 are. I believed this because of the pics in the main hall, these odd... ground cutaway pics done in colored pencil by Cynthia Harper, and a schematic of ocean currents done in pinpricks/indentations on paper by Renee van der Stelt.
The main exhibit is called MORI: An internet-based Earthwork. What it is is a room, an almost completely dark room with speakers semi-blasting. The only light are these floor tube-lights leading you in a circle to the center, where speakers are putting out a hum at... well... I thought I'd read that 110 decibels was painful noise, and 90 was like being under an aircraft taking off? I'd say the hum inside the room was a good 80 decibels. (In fact, the room smells like wood, and I don't think it's the frame construction; I think it's that smell speakers give off when they're playing really loud, that blasting-woody-speaker smell... for all of you that've owned a stereo.) So you have this blasting hum, then in the center you look into the floor, and there's a screen giving oscillosopic seismograph data of the Hayward Fault Line in California.
The flyer says the sounds "echo the unpredictable fluctuations of the earth's movement," but when I was there (around 15 minutes within earshot) I never heard the sound fluctuate. Regarding the title, the flyer says, "The title links the Japanese term for 'forest-sanctuary' with the latin 'reminder of mortality.' In Mori, the immediacy of the telematic embrace between earth and visitor questions the authenticity of mediated experience in the context of chance, human fragility, and geological endurance."
Well, it is an interesting sensory room, anyway. I suggest anyone in the area go in there. I have to say, being there at a slow time, it was at once cool and pretty scary to go in the room alone. I felt like something would jump out at me, and (more practically) with the noise level you'd have no way of knowing if someone was coming around the corner until you practically tripped over them (it's not pitch-dark, but it is a small space).
(fwiw, one of the MORI creators, Randall Packer, discusses the artwork at 7 on Thursday night. The other listed creators are Ken Goldberg, Gregory Kuhn, and Wojciech Matusik.)
Okay, goin' to Portland tomorrow mornin'
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Got the book today. Many , Many....MANY thanks. Reading through the lyrics of some of Springstreens older stuff, the stuff i really like the most. Springsteen really started losing his magic with me around The Born in the USA LP. (YES..LP, I owned the RECORD) His first 5 send me into fits of nirvana. Thanks for helping me remember. I'll burn you a copy of Nebraska if you want. Also anything else off his first six albums. I haven't bought anything else since Born...
In other news, I like you do not know how much longer I am going to stay here. If you do drop off though, I'd really like to stay in touch. I have not yet gotten a MYspace account. Do you think I should?
Other than that..the holiday has been ok. My son will be here in 10 days, I'm excited about that. So..tell me what is going on wih you.
LATE!!!!